Freiberg’s, Johnson City TN

One great way to sample more restaurants on a single inexpensive trip is to find places that Marie would be certain to enjoy more than me. We found just such a place in one of our favorite cities in Tennessee. Here’s her story.

You may have noticed that if we go to a barbecue restaurant (or shack, or food truck, or whatever) then Grant writes about it. If we go to a German style restaurant, I do the writing. That’s mainly because German cuisine is about as close as I’m likely to get to Dutch food in this region of the country. And they do generally get the red cabbage right.

In this case, we were passing through the delightful town of Johnson City. We’ve noticed that it seems to carry a bit of the atmosphere we love of Asheville, NC (and imported some franchises from there as well) so we had to stop by.

We got there a bit too early for lunch so we ambled through the local farmers’ market during which time I was consumed with jealousy – the markets we’ve found so far near our current abode aren’t nearly as extensive. My son was consumed with music, and encouraged his father and me to dance with him to the live bluegrass they happened to have going. If we hadn’t planned for a long day of traveling and leaving the car parked in hot places I would have carried home a huge watermelon I took a fancy to as well.

Once we got to lunchtime, however, we managed to coax our water-loving son past the fountain in front (thankfully without getting himself wet) and into the establishment, whereupon he steadfastly refused to eat anything whatsoever. This was disappointing considering that Grant was planning to have a bite right after this and wouldn’t be eating either. I don’t like being the only one to eat, and also I knew I wasn’t up to a huge plate of bratwurst or schnitzel. But I always like salami, and they had a delightful sounding sandwich. Here’s a link to a story with a better photo than ours.

It was a very nice sandwich and didn’t deserve someone whose appetite was suppressed by the heat. I had to get the side of red cabbage. It wasn’t perfect as the last one was, but still quite excellent, and I’m afraid I filled up on that rather than giving my sandwich the attention it deserved. Sadly, red cabbage isn’t something my family appreciates so I don’t bother making it at home, and am therefore in turn not terribly good at making it exactly the way I like it best.

Freiberg’s was started in 2008 but looks older than that inside. They must have taken over an establishment without moving the tables (though I wasn’t able to find out who/what was in the place before), as the floor had clearly had a lengthy relationship with the current seating arrangement based on the patterns of scratches on the floor which give the room character. The building has been around since the 1890s! The place was started by Andreas and Michele Herholz, and named after Mr. Herholz’s hometown in Germany. We enjoyed our visit and hope that you will stop by and then tell us about yours.

Freiberg’s
203 E Main St
Johnson City, TN 37604

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